‘Vax Live’ Mobilizes US$ 302 MN

IN INDIA, VAX LIVE – GLOBAL CITIZEN ARE PARTNERING WITH ROTARY CLUB OF BOMBAY, VIACOM 18 AND WIZCRAFT INTERNATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT IN INDIA – TO RAISE FUNDS FOR COVID RELIEF WORK IN THE COUNTRY.

VAX LIVE — the first large-scale music event for a COVID 19-compliant audience composed of fully-vaccinated frontline health care and essential workers — brought together artists, entertainers, and world leaders to support vaccine equity.

Hosted by multi-platinum recording artist, actress, and producer Selena Gomez, and featuring VAX LIVE campaign chairs Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the event saw more than 20,000 fully-vaccinated health workers and first responders come together for the live taping of VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World on May 2 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, to unite to end the COVID-19 pandemic and celebrate a hopeful future.

Airing in more than a hundred countries and streamed globally on YouTube, the event featured performances from Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin, and H.E.R., with appearances by Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Gayle King, Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo Mbatha, Olivia Munn, and Sean Penn.

The campaign, launched earlier this year as part of Global Citizen’s broader Recovery Plan for the World campaign, aims to end the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring COVID-19 vaccines are made available to everyone, everywhere, and to inspire vaccine confidence around the world.

More than 26 mn COVID-19 vaccine doses were committed from countries around the world for the most vulnerable populations worldwide

COVAX aims to deliver 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of 2021 to end the acute phase of the pandemic. Unless more than half of the world’s population is immunized, an end to the pandemic is nowhere in sight.

Part of the Global Citizen’s broader Recovery Plan for the World, the VAX LIVE campaign was launched to provide equitable and urgent COVID-19 vaccine access to vulnerable communities around the world and support the work of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, the global mechanism dedicated to the equitable and coordinated procurement of vaccines, tests, and treatments and universal access to affordable COVID-19 vaccination.

CANADA pledged an additional CA$375 million (US$299 million) to the ACTAccelerator to provide vaccines, tests, and treatments to the poorest countries. With this pledge, Canada’s total contributions to ACT-A will be nearly CA$1.35 billion, making it only the second G7 country to give its fair share.

CROATIA pledged as part of the VAX LIVE campaign to share 50,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, as part of a bilateral agreement in coordination with COVAX via the European sharing mechanism. The doses will go to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo. Croatia also committed €500,000 (US$600,000) to COVAX.

13.25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses were pledged from Norway, Spain, New Zealand, Croatia, and the UAE to share doses regionally, and to vulnerable countries around the world.

$39.6 million in commitments pledged by corporate and philanthropic partners in support of COVAX, the worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. These pledges have been matched in funding to the value of $23.6 million, totalling $63.3 million. This funding is set to help procure almost 12.66 million COVID-19 vaccines. Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, called for citizens to publicly donate to COVAX, and at the time of writing their initiative has mobilized $535,000, which will help purchase 107,000 COVID-19 doses.

More than 26 mn COVID-19 vaccine doses were committed from countries around the world for the most vulnerable populations worldwide

The special also featured messages from His Holiness Pope Francis, US President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, US Vice President Kamala Harris, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, and Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenkovic.

In support of the campaign, His Holiness Pope Francis called for “a spirit of justice that mobilizes us to ensure true universal access to vaccines, and a temporary suspension of intellectual property rights. A spirit of communion that allows us to generate a different economic model that is inclusive, just, and sustainable.”

In 2021 alone, at least 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses are still urgently needed, and unless at least 60% of the world’s population gains access to the vaccine, an end to the pandemic is nowhere in sight.

The world must remain firmly focused on reducing the equity gap in COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Rich countries with just 13% of the world’s population have cornered the vaccine market.

Dose sharing is being seen as the only strategy to improve equitable vaccine access for nations unable to facilitate their own country-led vaccine rollouts. Global pharmaceutical companies are being advised to act with extraordinary purpose, responsibility, and leadership in response to the global equity crisis by providing COVID-19 vaccine doses to COVAX at not-for-profit pricing.

Only if pharmaceutical companies and the world’s leaders work in solidarity to end the opposition to the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccine patents will global vaccine production increase and provide universal access.

Since the campaign’s launch in February, Global Citizens have taken 100,000 actions to call on the world’s leaders to step up and fully fund the ACTAccelerator. Global Citizens around the world tweeted, signed petitions, and took other actions to urge world leaders and corporations to donate enough funds and vaccine doses for health workers on the front lines in the world’s poorest countries, and call on pharmaceutical companies to commit to fair pricing for COVID-19 vaccines.